Come To Class (CTC).

I end almost every communication to my students with those three simple letters; CTC.

Why do I do that? Why do I bother? Isn’t the motivation to come to class and train supposed to come from within? Isn’t it the Aikido players’ job to get him or herself to class and isn’t it not Sensei’ responsibility to remind them?

Well, yes and no, definitely maybe, and it depends. Don’t you just love Zen-style answers?

Yes; we should all be self-motivating. No; most of the time most of us fail at self-motivation even when we try to be good about it. Definitely maybe; sometimes we fail to self-motivate so others need to give us a little encouragement once in a while. It depends; on what you expect from your martial arts study and conversely what Sensei wants you to achieve.

Notice that I said, “What Sensei wants you to achieve”, not necessarily what he expects from you.

Any good Sensei, note …… ANY GOOD SENSEI (and I’m not talking about some schmuck teacher out for a dollar or two) puts everything they have on the line and throws out everything in their head for you to take advantage of and learn because every time they look at a class of white belts, they don’t see white belts, they see an entire flock of hakama wearing, uke throwing, ukemi taking 7th and 8th dans; not a bunch of beginners.

Sensei knows the potential that a 20 or 30 year study of Aikido can accomplish in reshaping your life in a dynamically positive and productive fashion, and wants to create an environment in which you can take advantage of the opportunity. Having been through it, he also knows that you cannot see the kind of person you will be after 20 years on the mat. It is truly esoteric and cannot be explained. It can only be experienced after your having passed through it and after your having arrived at Hanshi (exemplar) level. Only then will you understand viscerally. Until then everything Sensei says about the long-term benefits is only ephemeral smoke with a few mirrors thrown in for you to comb your hair and do a little martial preening in.

So a Sensei, a good Sensei, will encourage you to attend class every time he sees you, and it’s for your benefit and not his health. He wants you to be exposed to the material and to be in the dye vat so-to-speak so that it (the knowledge) will rub off on you.

Most, I said MOST of the really high-level knowledge you gain after years on the mat does not come from class per-se because normal beginner/mid-level classes almost by definition must be taught at a level that best imparts basic fundamental operating principles of the art from. Therefore, it cannot be a high-level seminar, and true Yudansha level information therefore that is learned and internalized is best done during extra training either before or after class or during spontaneous training sessions like 10 PM on a Friday night.

Advanced understanding is strange. It is osmotic. It seeps into you because you walked by the dripping faucet, metaphorically speaking. It occurs because you got to the dojo early one night and just from sitting on the side watching other players fool around before class bows-in, you overhear them discussing that one technique that has dealt you fits for the last 6 months. You know the one, the one that has you thinking that you need to quit because you’ll never understand it, never get it. It frustrates you. It gives you nightmares and you wake up at 3 AM and watch the fan go around in circles while the technique roams around inside your head like Ueshiba's cat looking for a sake cup full of milk that he can’t find.

Well, they’re having trouble also with the same technique but suddenly, during their discussion they make that one comment or do that one really good looking throw that sticks in your mind and suddenly the lights go off in your head, “My gawd! They make it sound so simple! Why didn’t I see that before?”

Now here’s the rub …………. If you hadn’t just happened to be at the dojo that night and hadn’t just happened to overhear the conversation you would never have found the answer to your question. It was serendipity, in a martially-artisty kind of way.

And that’s the point that Sensei knows and tries to communicate to all his players and why he keeps saying to just come to class. If you simply come to train and hang at the dojo and just do a little work, then how much information and knowledge will you get from that spontaneous conversation? How many questions will be answered by you being thrown that one extra time and by your getting a feel for that off-balance that had escaped you until that one moment? How much knowledge will you gain by working randori with someone and you throw them and they jump up from the tatami and ask, “What the hell was that? I tried to resist and it felt like all I did was throw myself into the floor for you. What did you do? That was wonderful! Throw me again ….. PLEASE!”

And you’re standing there like a fool, confused because you know they went over but it was soooooo easy that you can’t believe that it was you that did the throw; so you act cool and not confused and of course take credit and smile and go home that night standing a little bit straighter and feeling a little bit more like O’Sensei must have felt his first time.

And now you wake up at 3 AM watching the fan go around in circles and all you say is, “Wow!” …… and of course your spouse rolls over and asks “What?” and you just tell them , “Nothing dear. Go back to sleep.” They of course can’t see the big grin on your face.

If you had stayed home that night; if you had gone to happy hour and addlepated your brain with liquid hallucinogens decorated with slices of pineapple and little umbrellas, if you had gone to sleep on the couch in front of that new plasma TV, then you would have missed that one moment that had the potential to make all the difference to your martial arts career.

The real problem here is that you don’t know when “That Moment” will occur, when Sensei will give that one lesson, or make that one comment, or that one correction that makes the difference. So if you make a habit of always missing classes and sporadically training or of always arriving exactly at class time and never staying for extra work, “Gotta go home now, bye!”, how many “Moments” will you miss?

Remember, the potential is there for at least one “Moment” per class, and the more black belts on the mat at one time, the larger the dynamic database is and the larger the number of interactions between players and the greater the number of possible “Moments” becomes.

As an example, one of my high-level players who is currently focused on an intense study of randori and kata came up to me two weeks after I was working with him and another Renshi level player. He said that my teaching about “pegging” the attacker’s weight on one foot momentarily and how it will affect his balance and postural control such that it opens him up for a terminal waza, had opened his eyes and that it was a great lesson that he now needed to work on.

It had made all the difference to him BECAUSE HE WAS IN CLASS THAT NIGHT AND JUST HAPPENED TO BE WORKING WITH ME AT “THE MOMENT”.

It was serendipity. I made the comment not because I had planned it as part of some larger lesson plan, but because it fit the circumstances at that point in time. I may not teach that lesson in that specific way for another 6 months or possibly 2 or 3 years because it just popped out of me, having been stimulated by their questions and that specific circumstance in the time-space continuum.

And, if they hadn’t been in class that night they would not have heard and could have quit over not hearing and having that technical issue haunt them until the frustration became so bad that they simply couldn’t stand it anymore; and they quit.

So grasshopper …… how many lessons have you missed lately?

Originally Published July 11,2008